418 BRITISH BIRDS. 



SYLVIA GALACTODES. 

 RUFOUS WARBLER. 



(Plate 10.) 



Tui'dua arundinaoeus, Linn., var. fi, Lath. Ind. Oni. i. p. 334 (1790). 



Sylvia galactotes, Temm. Man. d'Oni. i. p. 182 (1820) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



— {Gray), (Bonaparte), (lieiii/lin), (Dci/ltind ^' Gerbe), {Gould), {Xeicton), 



{Dresser), ^-c. 

 Turdus nibiginosus, Mei/er, Taschenb. Zus. u. Ber. p. 66 ( 1822). 

 Aedon galactodes {Temm.), Bvie, Isis, 1826, p. !J72. 

 S}'lvia mbiginosa, Temm. 3Ian. d'Orn. iii. p. 12lJ (1835). 

 Agrobates galactotes (Temm.), Swains. Classif. B.ii. p, 241 (1837). 

 Salicaria galactotes {Temm.), Gould, B. Eui-. ii. pi. 112 (1837). 

 ErytliropTgia galactodes (Temm.}, Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. ^- N. Amer. p. 13 



(1838). 

 Aedon rubiginosa {Temm.), Degl. Orn. Eur. i. p. •5ij7 (1849). 

 CalamolLerpe galactodes {Temm.), Schl. Vog. Nederl. p. 141 (l8-')4). 

 Agrobates rnbiginosus {Temm.), Didiois, Ois. Eur. pi. 74 (1862). 



The Rufous Warbler can only be considered a very accidental 

 straggler to the British Islands. The first specimen was shot by Sways- 

 landj the well-known bird-stuffer of Brighton, in the autumn of 1854^ and 

 recorded in the 'Zoologist' for that year (p. 4511) by Mr. Borrer. This 

 gentleman writes that as Swaysland " was driving on the South Downs 

 about six miles from Brighton, near a part of the Downs known as 

 Plumpton Bosthill, he noticed a bird which he at first took for a cream- 

 coloured variety of the Nightingale. Having no gun, he proceeded about 

 four miles to obtain one, and, returning to the spot, found the bird about 

 twenty yards from where he first observed it. It was very wary, flying 

 always to the further side of some furze bushes, and settling on the side 

 furthest from him, mounting into the air some fifteen yards. Swaysland 

 describes its flight as resembling that of the young of the Red-backed 

 Shrike. He at last got a shot at about forty yards, and killed it : this 

 was on the 16th of September last. The bird, on dissection, proved to be a 

 male, and would shortly have moulted, one or two young feathers of the 

 primaries having made their appearance on each wing : these are darker 

 than the old ones. The feathers also on the back and tail, especially the 

 central ones of the latter, are much worn." In 1859 the late Mr. G. R. 

 Gray writes, in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' (iv. p. 399), 

 of the second specimen, stating that it had " been killed near Start Point, 

 South Devonshire, on the 25th of September last. It was shot by William 

 D. Llewellyn, Esq., by whom it was presented to the British Museum. 

 That gentleman observed that its flight much resembled that of a Lark, 



